When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
